Volcán Pacaya

Latitude 14.55807°N Longitude 90.73778°W

Monday, October 14, 2002

Diary:

6am excursion to Volcán Pacaya, a few kilometers from Guatemala City. It
was a 1.5 hour drive each way, and the climb up was 2 hours. Total
vertical hiked was 580m, the smoking summit of the cinder cone was at
2576m. What a view!

It was seriously windy on the summit, and since we were at about the
same height as the clouds, the incredible views were obscurred each time a
cloud mass enveloped us in a moist and cold fog. There was too much water
vapor and smoke turbulence at the crater lip to see anything inside, but
there was plenty of sulphur dioxide to choke on and the rocks on the
ground underneath us were radiating a significant level of heat!

Still classified as an active volcano, Pacaya last errupted quite
spectacularly two years ago. Of course we were very lucky it did not
decide to do anything while we were perched on its rim; we would have been
complete toast. Coming down the endless 45 ° scree slope was much more fun
than going up! It was like water skiing or surfing down an endless wave
made of tiny pumice stones and dust.